Latest Gear Live Videos

Motorola announced on Wednesday that its Xoom tablets are going to finally receive the Ice Cream Sandwich update that so many have been waiting for. For those of you who do not know, Ice Cream Sandwich is the latest version of Android (currently Android 4.0.3). The update will be applied over the air, assuming you are connected to a Wi-Fi network, immediately. The update will give Xoom tablet users more functionality, including voice capabilities and faster browser rendering. This update will also make the Xoom one of the first tablets to adopt the Ice Cream Sandwich update.

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2011 will come to an end in just a few short hours, and we are just in time with our annual top 10 list of the most-watched Gear Live video episodes. Over the past year, as expected, there was a bunch of Apple gear that made the list, but the HTCThunderbolt gets two of the top spots, as does the Motorola Xoom.

Oh, and if you wanna be sure to get our new video episodes as they come out in 2010, be sure to subscribe to us in iTunes, on YouTube, or in your RSS reader!

Motorola Mobility shipped 250,000 Xoom media tablets in the first quarter while improving year-over-year revenue to $3 billion but taking an $81 million loss in the three months ending April 2.

Motorola Mobility, recently split off from Motorola Solutions, also shipped 4.1 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2011, the company said Thursday. In all, Motorola Mobility said it shipped 9.3 million mobile devices in the quarter, beating analyst expectations.

Motorola split into two independent public companies in January with Motorola Mobility generally considered a spin-off. Motorola Solutions—which makes bar code scanners, police radios and other products—also reported earnings Thursday and had net income of $497 million, up from $69 million in the first quarter of 2010.

The Wi-Fi version of the Motorola Xoom will be available at various retailers starting March 27, the company announced Wednesday.

The 10.1-inch tablet will be at Amazon.com, Best Buy, Costco, RadioShack, select Sam's Club locations, Staples, and Walmart - both in-store and on their Web sites.

The Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi with 32GB of memory will cost $599.

Motorola said the Xoom Wi-Fi will also be available to commercial IT channels and regional retailers through a distribution agreement with Synnex Corporation, and regional carriers through Brightpoint.

Apple's March 2 event is all but guaranteed to bring us the iPad 2, most likely with dual cameras and a revamped OS. It arrives two months after CES 2011, to a landscape littered with tablets from scores of manufacturers, most of them with one thing in common: they are running Google's Android OS. But only a handful of them run Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), the first Android tablet OS. Can tablets like the Motorola Xoom—the first Honeycomb device—take on the iPad?

If the past is any indicator, it doesn't look good. This has less to do with quality of product, however, and more to do with the manner in which the product is brought to the public.

The clear advantage Apple has over just about every competitor—except perhaps for RIM—is that it relies on no external manufacturers for its products. To clarify: of course Apple needs to farm out production of the components that make up its devices to OEMs, but when you see a new iPad, it is from Apple, running an Apple OS, for sale at the Apple store. The closest Apple comes to working with other companies is its partnerships with Verizon and AT&T for the iPhone and iPad. For the most part, however, Apple is its own, self-controlling entity. With no company—other than the carriers and OEMs— with which to coordinate, Apple can create a realistic product release timeline and stick to it.

We've got the Verizon Wireless4GMotorolaXoom, and in this episode we give you a nice, thorough walkthrough of the device. We show you the hardware, alongside a look at Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Get a look at the music player, YouTube for Android tablets, the front and rear cameras, multitasking, widgets, the built-in Google Books reader, and much more in our Xoom review. In case you missed it, we also have a video of our Motorola Xoom unboxing.

Earlier today, we let you know that we got our MotorolaXoom in-house so that you could hit us with your questions, and a little while after that, we hit you with our Motorola Xoom unboxing video. A few people have been asking for still images of the device, so we threw together a quick Xoom unboxing gallery. We'll be putting up a comparison between the Xoom and the iPad soon, and also be sure to check out our video walkthrough of the device, as well as our full Motorola Xoom review. Both are coming soon.

We've got our hands on the Verizon Wireless version of the MotorolaXoom tablet. This Android 3.0 Honeycomb device supports Verizon's 3G and 4G LTE networks. In this video, we open up the Xoom and give you a look at the tablet hardware and accessories. Then, we powering it on to give you a look at the Xoom setup process. After entering in the Google credentials, we are up and running for a quick tour of the Honeycomb interface. This is just the unboxing, though, so stay tuned for a more thorough walkthrough of the device in the next episode of Bleeding Edge TV.

We just got our hands on our MotorolaXoom review unit, and we're about to tear into it to give you a look at everything it offers. If you've got any questions about this Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet, feel free to leave them in the comments and we'll be sure to address them. As you can see by the box, we've got the 4G LTE-capable Verizon model here.

Well, after a bunch of false starts, we've finally got a price for the MotorolaXoom. Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha was quoted by Reuters as saying that the 32 GB Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet will sell for $799 unsubsidized from Verizon (although we're sure Verizon may offer their own subsidized price,) and there'll also be a Wi-Fi-only model for $600. No launch date has been given yet, but signs are pointing to it happening at some point next week.